Soft Matter Macro and Micro-Photonics workshop

Soft-matter platforms for nonlinear and topological photonics

Zhigang Chen
TEDA Applied Physics Institute & School of Physics, Nankai University, Tianjin 300457, China
zgchen@nankai.edu.cn

Synthetic materials with tailored optical properties have long driven advances in photonics. Among these, bio–soft-matter and nanosuspensions have recently emerged as versatile platforms for exploring nonlinear optical phenomena and enabling new photonic functionalities. Their intrinsic responsiveness, structural diversity, and strong light–matter interactions provide unique opportunities for controlling light in complex and dynamic environments.

In this talk, I will present a brief overview of our recent work on optical nonlinearities and photonic applications in soft-matter and nanosuspension systems. The first part focuses on nonlinear optical effects in biological suspensions, including self-trapping and waveguiding of light in colloidal suspensions of algal cells, red blood cells, and other bio-soft-matter systems [1–3]. These media exhibit distinctive nonlinear phenomena, such as spatial self-phase modulation and optical-force-induced quasi-waveguide formation, arising from the interplay between optical forces and particle dynamics in heterogeneous biological environments.

The second part highlights our recent efforts toward soft-matter-enabled topological lasing. In particular, we demonstrate cholesteric liquid crystal (CLC)-based superlattice cavities that support tunable topological interface lasing in both in-plane [4] and vertical-cavity surface-emitting configurations [5]. These results illustrate how soft-matter platforms can provide flexible and reconfigurable routes toward nonlinear and topological photonic devices.

[1] A. Bezryadina et al., Physical Review Letters 119, 058101 (2017).

[2] R. Gautam et al., Light: Science & Applications 8, 31 (2019).

[3] R. Gautam et al., Advances in Physics: X 5, 1778526 (2020).

[4] Y. Wang et al., Laser Photonics Review 17, 2200643 (2023)

[5] Y. Wang et al., Light: Science & Applications 2, 27 (2026).